Azaranica is a non-biased news aggregator on Hazaras and Hazarajat...The main aim is to promote understanding and respect for cultural identities by highlighting the realities they are facing on daily basis...Hazaras have been the victim of active persecution and discrimination and one of the reasons among many has been the lack of information, awareness and disinformation...... To further awareness against violence, disinformation and discrimination, we have launched a sister Blog for youths and youths are encouraged to share their stories and opinions; Young Pens

The empty niche of the Great Buddha in 2010. “The void is the true sculpture,” says Andrea Bruno (inset), Afghanistan’s most seasoned conservation architect

When Andrea Bruno, an architectural consultant to Unesco for the past 40 years, went back to the Bamiyan Buddhas, blown up in March 2001 by the Taliban, he immediately scrapped all ideas he might have had about some sort of replacement. “The void is the true sculpture,” he says. “It stands disembodied witness to the will, thoughts and spiritual tensions of men long gone. The immanent presence of the niche, even without its sculpture, represents a victory for the monument and a defeat for those who tried to obliterate its memory with dynamite.” ...Continue Reading...

Wednesday, May 30, 2012

QUETTA: Major Shafaat died a sad broken man. Abandoned by his institution. Betrayed by childhood friends. Forsaken by his hometown. His only fault was to have been born different. A man with a flat nose and chinky eyes. An ethnic Hazara.

He lived a rich childhood frolicking up and down the Quetta streets with his Baloch, Pashtun, Punjabi and Hazara friends from school. Ethnicity did not matter at all in those days. Friends were—well—just friends. He was lucky that he was able to fulfill his ambition to join Pakistan Army. There is a long tradition among his community to join army dating back to 1830s when Captain Jacob—of Jacobabad fame—recruited Hazaras for the First Afghan war. Musa Khan joined Hazara Pioneers Regiment in 1904 as a sepoy and rose to become Pakistan’s Chief of Army Staff and West Pakistan Governor. Shafaat admired General Musa and Air Vice Marshal (Retd) Sharbat Changezi as his role models from his community.

Shafaat, now a major posted in Rawalpindi, volunteered to be posted to his hometown about three years ago. He thought he would be better off serving in Quetta—among dear friends and family. The city had changed drastically by then. He found his non-hazara bosom friends avoiding him. Some of them even showed hostility. “I felt it was just because I had a flat nose and chinky eyes like most descendants of Mongol Khan, “ he said visibly Irritated. Disheartened, he took a leave and got himself enrolled in Balochistan University’s Mass Communication Department. He found the antagonism there even worse. It was a double jeopardy: Pashtun students aligned to Sunni parties saw him as a Shia outcaste liable, as their posters suggest, to be killed; Baloch suspected him as an army infiltrator who had been sent to spy on them. Here is the heart-breaker: He was not trusted even by his army colleagues back at the Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) offices. He was kept out of the local intelligence loop. A new commandant had issued instructions not to let him see even the army’s movement roster. He was absolutely dismayed.

Shafaat shared his pain with me while we were traveling the length and breadth of Balochistan during one of my earlier visits there a few months ago. In all we spent about 62 hours together but now it appears like an entire lifetime. I had requested the ISPR to give me an attachment so that I could visit army’s remote outposts to get their side of the story. To my luck—came along Shafaat who was part journalist because of his Mass Communication degree. A highly sensitive soul, he was definitely way more knowledgeable and objective than your typical army officer. We travelled through Bolan Pass, Sibbi, Dera Allah Rar, Kashmore to Dera Bugti and back exploring some of the most explosive places in Pakistan. We had all the time during our long travels, sometimes 13 hours straight, to discuss Balochistan, particularly Hazaras.

We stopped by at Kolpur just outside the Quetta valley where, he told me, his ancestors had come as coal miners to escape the excesses of Afghan King Abdur Rehman in the 1890s. Kol means a cap in which they received their days’ earning and Pur means abode—hence abode of the cap-wielding people. Even today, a majority of Hazaras works on menial jobs as miners and labourers. We saw in Mach coal mines down the way that they remain as sturdy and hard working as they were a century ago.

Shafaat was constantly receiving calls from his family. He laughed that his wife and children were worried not because he was travelling to such dangerous areas but because they feared he might be targeted as a Hazara. “I don’t blame them,” I remember him saying, “such has been our life lately; I also fear the same every time my daughter goes to school or my wife goes to bazaar.”

Hazara are an easy target because they are easily distinguishable from the other ethnic groups because of their Mongol features. Over 700 Hazara Shias have been killed in the last decade.

As many as 39 Hazaras died in the last 19 days. Last September, religious processions organized by the community were targeted twice killing around 50 people. Then came the Mastung carnage the same month. It is not just the staggering number of Hazaras killed but the brutality that was shown by killers.

A bus carrying Hazara pilgrims to Quetta was brutally assaulted. All the 26 men and boys aboard were taken out of the bus, lined up and shot, as their mothers, wives and sisters watched from inside. Unafraid, the assailants had insured that the highway was blocked on both ends when they conducted that ambush. Two more Hazara men were killed after being dragged out of their cars at a traffic light in Quetta the same evening.The total death toll for the day was over thirty dead and scores more injured. It was mourning for almost every other house among roughly half a million Hazaras as most of them are related through marriages.

Shafaat said he too was sometimes seen as a suspect as many in the community blame the army. The argument goes that if the ISI can kill dump hundreds of Baloch, why cannot they get hold of a bunch of religious fanatics. “I am a suspect for me colleagues, my friends and my community,” he said sadly. His family wanted him to move to Australia. Thousands of Hazaras have moved to Australia and Canada in the last few years. Some take grave risks. Hundreds have died in containers, crossing borders, others in ship wrecks. Over 300 people died off the coast of Java last December, most of them Hazaras. So desperate are people from this cruelty that they are willing to take every risk to get out of here.

Shafaat was not the one to leave. He was too much in love with the Community that had held him in suspicion, the army that had disappointed him and Quetta that had scorned him. He was a proud Hazara, khaki as well as a Quettawal. Shafaat got a call while he was explaining his affection for the three. He turned suddenly pale. Another attack on Hazaras had taken place. Six were shot dead execution style while drinking tea at one of the many roadside stalls in Quetta. One of them was his relative. He almost fainted, sweating profusely. Being a small expert in cardiac symptoms, I could see it was serious. I got him a doze of aspirins and brain relaxants and requested him to “take it easy.” Obviously, he was very sensitive about the whole thing. On my way back I also talked to his family to keep him calm and away from such news.

I got a call from his number 15 days later. A big ‘hello’ came out of my mouth, without realizing that it was his daughter. “So where’s your dad,” I chuckled. “He died today,” she replied.

He was only 32. A noble honest man, but born with a flat nose and chinky eyes. Maybe he deserved to die because he naively believed himself to be a Pakistani. But in today’s Pakistan, he was just a Hazara.

Human rights groups and journalists yesterday marked the first anniversary of the murder of Saleem Shahzad yesterday. Source:AP

A PAKISTANI journalist from the persecuted Shia Hazara community has sought asylum in Australia, saying he was forced to flee the country because of death threats from military-backed militants.

News of 38-year-old Amjad Hussain's plea for asylum emerged yesterday as journalists and human rights groups in Pakistan and internationally marked the first anniversary of the murder of Pakistani journalist Saleem Shahzad.

Shahzad's tortured body was found floating in an irrigation channel about 100km from the Islamabad, weeks after he expressed fears for his life and revealed he had received threats from the Inter Services Intelligence agency.

Shahzad, known to have impeccable contacts in Pakistan's security establishment and within Islamic militant groups, had raised ISI hackles with a series of stories exploring links between the two sides.

A commission of inquiry into his death failed to reach a conclusion and no one has been apprehended for his murder.

Amnesty International yesterday condemned that failure and said Shahzad's killing "highlighted the perils faced by journalists in Pakistan".

Pakistan remains one of the world's most dangerous countries for journalists with at least three killed in the past five months, and six last year.

Mr Hussain, who claims to have been a close friend and colleague of Shahzad, says he fled the country fearing he would meet a similar fate because of his reports on the sectarian and extra-judicial murders, disappearances and human rights abuses against the Hazara and other communities in Balochistan.

The province has been embroiled for decades in a bloody battle between Baloch nationalists and paramilitary forces. Human Rights Watch estimates more than 275 Hazaras (who adhere to the Shia Muslim faith) were murdered in targeted killings between 2008 and 2011 in Balochistan.

Mr Hussain is being held in West Australia's Curtin Detention Centre but says, despite the difficult conditions, he now feels "protected" from the Islamic terror groups that threatened his life.

"I didn't want to become another Saleem Shahzad," he said in an interview published in the Huffington Post. "I was not ready to move to a third city and still meet Shahzad's fate."

Mr Hussain was based in Balochistan for the English language news channel Dawn TV before transferring from the provincial capital Quetta to Islamabad in 2010 following death threats, and a narrow escape from a suicide attack.

But he claims the threats continued after he moved to the capital and last October he quit his job and fled the country.

Dawn TV's Quetta bureau chief Ali Shah confirmed yesterday Mr Hussain had faced threats and persecution because he was Hazara, but said he was not aware he had received threats because of his reporting.

"It's really simple. There's a sectarian problem in Quetta city. His life was in danger because he was a Shia Hazara," Mr Shah told The Australian.

An email written by Mr Hussain in January this year to his former Islamabad employers reveals his plans to seek asylum in Australia and his need for evidence to support his case of persecution.

Mohammad Ali was on his way on a bicycle when unknown assailants fired at him.

QUETTA: A member of the Hazara community was shot dead near a roadside hotel on Joint Road, Quetta on Wednesday.

According to the police, the victim identified as Ali Mohammad, son of Gulam Ali Hazara, was travelling on his cycle when armed assailants riding on a motorbike opened fire at him. Mohammad was killed on the spot and his body was rushed to the Provincial Sandeman hospital for autopsy.

The victim was a Shia Muslim hailing from Marriabad, a Hazara dominated area.

Talking to The Express Tribune, a police official said that the murder could have been a case of sectarian target killing, but it was premature to make any conclusions. “A case has been registered against unknown persons and an investigation is underway.”

Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Here in Kabul, Voices co-coordinator Buddy Bell and I are guests at the home of the Afghan Peace Volunteers (APV), where we've gotten to know four young boys who are being tutored by the Volunteers in the afternoons, having "retired" from their former work as street vendors in exchange for a chance to enter a public school. Five afternoons a week, Murtaza, Rahim, Hamid and Sajad wheel their antiquated bicycles into the APV "yard." They quickly shake the hand of each person present and then wash their feet outside the back door before settling into a classroom to study language, math and art, tutored in each subject by a different Volunteer. They've cycled here from school through heavy traffic, which worries their mothers, but the families cannot afford for the boys to take a public bus. ...Continue Reading...

Monday, May 28, 2012

(Reuters) - Insurgents have stepped up attacks in the area thought to be Afghanistan's safest, the rugged central province of Bamiyan, moving into the region in a bid to undermine security ahead of the end-2014 exit from the country of most foreign combat troops.

Around 20 Taliban fighters from neighboring Baghlan province have crossed into Bamiyan and launched attacks in several districts, Bamiyan Police Chief General Juma Guldi Yardem told Reuters on Tuesday.

"They usually plant roadside bombs, lead attacks on security checkpoints and some have even launched suicide attacks on some government offices," Yardem said...Continue Reading...

"QUETTA: Balochistan Chief Minister Nawab Aslam Raisani is a paradox. His admirers will tell you that he is a happy-go-lucky person “who will not say ‘no’ to you for anything that you might ask.”

Well, that could be a good trait as well as bad, depending on what one is asking. He’s got his unique, casual style that is amply posted on YouTube as Pakistan’s most funny videos. In one video he is trying to address a public gathering visibly stoned. He tries to mutter a few sentences then takes long — really long — pauses and finally collapses on stage. His media managers will tell you it was migraine but even a child can tell that it’s not. This style is reflected in everything around him. It seems his clowning around fits every other stakeholder in power."........

........"The province was already beset by sectarian and target killings that saw 1,388 people killed in the last four years, 434 of them from law enforcing agencies. In the ever-growing sectarian strife, 287 Hazaras, Shias, Hindus and Christians were targeted in 88 incidents. Tragedy gets lots in these figures. In this sleepy old town that was known for its beautiful, breezy evenings, everybody seems to be killing everybody else."........

"It’s not just the insurgency but the normal crime rate that has shot up. Criminals are having a field day in the absence of any governance. Murders have gone up from 636 in 2008 to 1,270 in 2011. Robberies have also shot from 240 to 386 in the same period. Kidnapping for ransom has increased from 181 to 421 and still growing into 2012. This has impacted businessmen particularly. Many do not wear good clothes or use good cars to avoid being identified as rich. The very soul of the city seems shattered. An extra stare by a stranger can sometimes cause shivers."......Continue Reading...

Friday, May 25, 2012

A Pakistani minority journalist being held at theCurtin Immigration Detention Centre, 40 kilometers southeast of Derby in West Australia, says he now feels "protected" from Islamic terrorist groups that had threatened to kill him in his home country.Amjad Hussain, 38, a print and broadcast journalist, was the only reporter from the often marginalizedHazara ethnic community working in Pakistan's mainstream media in Islamabad, the nation's capital. In less than a decade, extremist groups have killed nearly 600 Hazaras for practicing a Shia version of Islam in Sunni majority Pakistan. Hussain describes himself as a Hazara modernist, a secular professional who has come under attack for his ethnicity and for highlighting the human rights abuses committed by extremist groups and certain segments of the Pakistani security forces...Continue Reading...

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Picture of the Hazara labor, who was targeted killed by terrorist, this morning at Killi Chakar area of Sariab, Quetta. He was on his way to work, when armed men riding on motorcycle targeted him. He was identified as Ameer Mohammad s/o Haji Hasan, a resident of Hazara Town.

You don’t need to travel to Balochistan to understand how it has been systematically separated from the rest of the country. There is a cell-phone company advertisement at the airport in Karachi showing off the breadth of its network. A thousand points of light illuminate most of the country. However, Balochistan is mostly shrouded in darkness.

It has now become a journalistic cliché for an outsider to breathlessly report on the diversity of a city and Quetta, Balochistan’s capital city, certainly is diverse. But what is truly astounding is how diversely militarised Quetta is. There is the XII Corps of the Pakistan Army stationed there, now headed by Lt Gen Aslam Khattak and moved to the city in 2004, just before the Baloch rebellion began. A base of the Pakistan Air Force is maintained at Samungali and the Frontier Corps headquarters in the province is also maintained in Quetta and headed by Major General Obaidullah Khattak. That the military presence in Balochistan has such a strong Pakhtun component is not coincidental, for reasons that will become apparent. In addition, it is hard to walk any place in Quetta that doesn’t have policemen from the provincial police force patrolling the streets. It’s as if Pakistan’s security establishment is playing the world-domination board game Risk and has decided the best strategy is to move all its pieces to one tiny area.

However, in the minds of locals, because of this overwhelming military presence, Quetta may be one of the most insecure places in the country. By now everyone knows that a separatist rebellion is exploding in the province; less attention is being given to an organised war against minorities in the province’s capital. The most systematic of these campaigns may be the one against its Shia Hazara community...Continue Reading..

Saturday, May 19, 2012

The story of two Afghan sculptures, destroyed after a millennium and a halfSamanth Subramanianguardian.co.uk, Friday 18 May 2012Afghan girls walk past the empty seat of one of the Buddhas in Bamiyan. Photograph: Shah Marai/AFP/Getty Images

In 2001, in a violent attempt to advance the cause of Islamic fundamentalism, a clutch of men empowered by the Taliban brought down a titanic pair of structures that loomed over their skyline. No lives were lost. The few people living near the Buddhas of Bamiyan, in central Afghanistan, were cleared out first, before anti-artillery weapons were trained on the sculptures, carved out of the russet cliffs of the Bamiyan valley. "These statues have been and remain shrines of unbelievers," a February 2011 edict from Mullah Omar had proclaimed. Their destruction was carried out with a rare and perverse vim. Failing at first to pulverise the Buddhas, the Taliban called in Pakistani and Arab engineers to finish the job. In The Places in Between, Rory Stewart observed that the Taliban had scorched a fresco on the ceiling of one of the caves that honeycomb the cliffs and then stamped boot-prints over the patina of soot. "This must have taken some effort, as the ceiling was 20 feet high....continue reading...

Thursday, May 17, 2012

QUETTA: Two police personnel, belonging to Shia sect, were shot dead and another two were injured in a targeted attack in the Sardar Karez area on Thursday.

Police said a police van was on a routine patrol when unidentified men opened fire on the vehicle in the Sardar Karez area of Eastern Bypass. Two officials, belonging to Hazara community, were killed on the spot and another two sustained injuries.

Heavy contingents of police and FC rushed to the spot and cordoned off the area. The bodies were shifted to the Bolan Hospital. The deceased were identified as constable Ghulam Murtaza and constable Sanaullah and those injured were ASI Muhammad Hussain and Constable Deen Muhammad. “It could be a case of sectarian killing,” a police official said. No group has claimed responsibility so far.

Balochistan Governor Zulfiqar Magsi and Chief Minister Aslam Raisani condemned the attack. A case has been registered against unidentified assailants.

Imagine if the targets of Sydney’s drive-by shootings were not members of feuding bikie gangs but people singled out by virtue of their appearance to be shot dead while travelling to work by bus or car, shopping, attending a medical appointment or visiting relatives. It is beyond comprehension to imagine such a situation. Yet that is exactly what is happening to Hazaras in Pakistan. In recent years, armed terrorist groups have been targeting ordinary Hazara men, women and children on a weekly basis in Quetta, Pakistan. Over half a million Hazaras feel terrorized by these frenzy killings.

That is why on 10 May, over a thousand Hazara-Australians gathered in Canberra to protest against the systematic targeting of attacks on the Hazara community in Quetta, Pakistan. Men, women and children travelled by buses and cars from Melbourne, Adelaide, Brisbane and Sydney. Marching from the Australian Parliament House to the UN office and then the Pakistani embassy, they chanted ‘we want justice,’ ‘we want security,’ ‘Hazara rights are human rights,’ and ‘why is the UN silent’? ....Continue Reading...

Wednesday 16 May 2012Afghans learning the skills of stone-working in the Bamiyan valley, where the Taliban blew up two giant buddhas in 2001.

Under perfectly carved niches that once held dozens of small buddha statues, the purposeful tap of chisel on stone echoed over the Bamiyan valley for the first time in centuries.

Twelve young Afghans had gathered to take the first tentative steps back towards a stone-working tradition that once made their home famous, at a workshop in a cave gouged out as a monastery assembly hall more than 1,000 years ago....Continue Reading...

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

A protest rally was held in Toronto, Canada against the systematic genocide of Shia Muslims in Pakistan.

(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - A protest rally was held in Toronto, Canada against the systematic genocide of Shia Muslims in Pakistan. Protesters marched down to Dundas Square holding banners and placards with slogans against killing of Shia Muslims by sectarian terrorists in Pakistani city of Quetta. The rally was organized by Hazara Association of Canada.

Speakers urged human rights organizations, the international community and United Nations to take notice of the systematic killing of Hazara Shia minority in Pakistani city of Quetta. They said a community of 600,000 are besieged and living under constant threat and fear. People cannot travel from their homes to schools, universities, bazaar and markets due to daily killing of Shia Muslims. They strongly condemned the Government of Pakistan for its utter failure to maintain peace. Speakers further questioned the role of powerful military intelligence agencies in Pakistan, asking how could a bunch of sectarian terrorists operate with impunity, it is not complicity of elements from within the law enforcement agencies.

The protesters urged the Canadian Government to use diplomatic pressure to stop a humanitarian crisis in Pakistani city of Quetta.

Police cordoned off the area and conducted a search operation for the suspects. PHOTO: FILE

QUETTA: Target killings continue in Quetta as two hazaras were killed and one passerby was injured when unidentified gunmen on motorcycles opened fire on them in the Joint Road area of Quetta on Tuesday, Express News reported.

A police official said that the men were near the passport office on Joint Road when unidentified men on motorcycles targeted them, instantly killing the brothers, Mohammed Tahir and Mohammed Qadir and injuring a passerby.

The bodies and the injured man were shifted to Civil Hospital, whereas the police cordoned off the area and conducted a search operation for the suspects.

A month earlier, a complete shutter down and wheel-jam strike called by called by the Hazara Democratic Party (HDP) and backed by the Balochistan National Party (BNP) and Jamiat-i-Ulema Islam-Fazal (JUI-F) was observed in the provincial capital to protest sectarian killings.

Saturday, May 12, 2012

Continuously under attack from Lashkare Jhangvi (LeJ) and spurned by the Baloch nationalists, Hazaras of Balochistan suffer from double jeopardy in the province. From 2003 to 2009, more than 260 members of the community were killed in Quetta and over 100 injured. According to the HRCP records, 211 more had died in bomb blasts and shooting by October 2011 taking the tally to 471.

The victims belong to all categories: traders, government officials, lawyers and prominent citizens. Pakistan’s top boxer Ibrar Hussain, who represented the country three times at the Olympics and won gold at the 1990 Asian Games, was shot dead in the city in June last year. Quetta has turned into the killing fields for the Hazaras.

A small group of the Hazaras from Afghanistan settled in Quetta in late 19thcentury. They were asylum seekers who had fled during the reign of the Shia baiter Amir Abdur Rehman known for his relentless use of despotic authority. Abdur Rehman had earlier forced those living in Afghan Kafiristan to adopt Islam, rechristening the district as Nuristan. He then conducted several campaigns against the Shia Hazaras and massacred thousands of them. Their wives and children were sold in Kabul as slaves. There was a massive migration of the community to several countries in the region. The persecution continued in various ways till the reign of Zahir Shah who imposed a special tax on the Hazaras. A state sponsored campaign to Pakhtunise Afghanistan led to the emergence of revolutionary groups in non Pashtun districts. Prominent among these were Sitame Milli (National Persecution) group and Shulae Javed (the Eternal Flame).

As immigrants Hazaras were hard working people and prospered as they found peace and opportunity to work in Quetta. Some joined the British military and civil administration. A few like Gen Musa Khan and Air Vice Marshal Sharbat Ali Changezi reached the upper echelons of the armed forces. With around 91 percent literacy rate, the community has produced several prominent figures who have served the country with distinction. Saira Batool, one of the first women pilots in Pakistan, being one.

Despite the presence of a vibrant nationalist movement in the province, both in the Baloch and Pashtun areas, the Hazaras faced no discrimination because the community was small, helpful and unassuming. The situation, however, underwent a major change with the arrival of the Afghan refugees of various ethnicities after 1979. The Pashtun Afghans who came in thousands tilted the fragile ethnic balance against the Baloch who started resenting the presence of all outsiders. This section of the Afghan refugees was, however, welcomed by the Pasthun nationalists who maintained that they were brothers who had just crossed from the other one side of the divided Pashtun land. The Hazra entrants, however, were looked at with resentment by both the Pashtuns and the Baloch.

The Pashtun refugees brought their age old sectarian prejudices to an otherwise secular Quetta. These were exacerbated during the civil war that raged in Afghanistan in the 1990’s, particularly after the Taliban started their jihad against the Iran supported Northern Alliance. The Hazaras in Afghanistan were an important component of the Northern Alliance. The Taliban subjected them to horrible ethnic cleansing, particularly after capturing Mazare Sharif in August 1993. In a dispatch weeks later, Ahmad Rashid maintained that 4,000 to 6,000 Afghan Hazaras were brutally massacred in the city.

The Taliban regime in Kabul had allowed Pakistani LeJ terrorists who also fought against the Northern Alliance to set up their camps in Afghanistan. Mullah Umar spurned the request of the PML(N) government in late 1990’s to hand over LeJ masterminds like Riaz Basra. With the fall of Taliban, the LeJ shifted its HQs to Pakistan’s tribal areas. Henceforth, they decided to concentrate on the Shias inside Pakistan. They targeted especially those in Kurrum Agency, Gilgit-Baltistan, Karachi and Quetta. The TTP provided them full support.

Throughout the 1990’s, sectarian terrorists killed scores of Shias in Punjab, NWFP and Karachi. However, secular leaders in power in Balochistan kept the province a peaceful haven for Hazaras. Prominent among others these leaders were Akbar Bugti and Akhtar Mengal. Attacks on the community started only two years after Musharraf’s coup. These coincided with the period when agencies were directed under a master plan to give religious parties and militant groups a free hand. Hazara killings became all too frequent after the killing of Akbar Bugti when the agencies diverted full attention and resources to brutal suppression of the Baloch nationalists. Henceforth, providing security of life to citizens was considered no more a responsibility of the state.

Sunday, May 6, 2012

QUETTA: A Hazara man was among three people killed in separate incidents of shooting in Quetta, Mastung and Hub areas of Balochistan on Sunday.

In the first incident, unidentified armed men gunned down a man in Dasht area of Mastung. According to levies, the man identified as Muhammad Ali was sitting at his tyre shop when the armed men, riding a motorcycle, opened fire on him. Resultantly, he received multiple bullet wounds and died on the spot.

Levies officials rushed to the spot and cordoned off the area. A levies official said the man belonged to the Hazara community and that it was a sectarian killing.

The Hazara Democratic Party has strongly condemned the killing of Muhammad Ali, saying that the government had failed to provide security to Hazaras.

Separately, a man was killed in Hub, an industrial township of Balochistan. According to sources, unidentified armed men shot dead Kuda Baksh in Goth Haji Murad area of Hub. Police rushed to the spot and body was taken to a nearby hospital.

A man was also gunned down in the Sariab Road area of the provincial capital.

Police said gunmen, riding a motorbike, opened fire on the man near Faizabad area while he was on his way home. He died on the spot. The body was moved to the civil hospital. The attackers managed to escape.

Saturday, May 5, 2012

Quetta, the capital of Pakistan’s largest province, is a fascinating place. It is a frontier town with close ethnic and cultural links to both Iran and Afghanistan. The bulk of the city’s population is Pashtun, followed by the Baloch, the Brahvees, Punjabi settlers and the ethnic Hazaras, many of whom still speak Persian. There is significant military presence of corps strength and the famous Staff College is located there. So Quetta is a fairly cosmopolitan city with a bracing climate. This city has a special importance for my family as my wife was born in Quetta and calls herself a Balochi.

Balochistan, traditionally a forgotten backyard, has been in the limelight of late and for negative reasons. It has seen three, some say five, military actions. In some districts, the situation is still turbulent. This province still hosts two million Afghan refugees and shadows of the current conflict in Afghanistan often lurk here. The wounds caused by Nawab Akbar Bugti’s death have not yet healed fully. Sectarian killings, which were alien to this tolerant city, have raised their ugly head. A couple of months ago, a US Congressman felt a sudden bout of “sympathy” for the Baloch people. All said and done, there is no denying the fact that Balochistan has a very strategic location.

I visited Quetta recently as a member of an NGO team. The purpose of our visit was to launch a report about the quality of democracy in Pakistan and to hold discussions with all stakeholders in this important province. The security situation in the city was tense and nine ethnic Hazaras were killed while we were there. Soon after the killings, we had a detailed meeting with the representatives of this community. The Hazaras are a wonderful people. They are enterprising in business and their literacy rate is higher than other ethnic segments. They have produced great soldiers like General Musa Khan. They are proud Pakistanis and can contribute a lot to the development of their province as they have the necessary skills.

In Balochistan, the Pashtun and Baloch populations were evenly poised. The arrival of millions of Afghan refugees, the bulk of whom are Pashtun from Kandhahar and its vicinity, has upset that fine balance. The killing of Hazaras too appears to be a corollary of the Afghan conflict as the Hazaras there are aligned with the Northern Alliance, against the Taliban. We could not venture much out of the Serena Hotel due to the security situation. Our meeting with Governor Zulfiqar Magsi was quite instructive. Having earlier served twice as chief minister, he is very knowledgeable about the province and its problems. A meeting proposed with Nawab Aslam Raeesani, the chief minister, could not materialise as he was out of town.

The problem in Balochistan is complicated and in some serious ways.The boycott of the 2008 elections by the nationalist parties has brought forth a second class and inexperienced leadership. Sixty out of a total of 65 members of the provincial parliament are ministers or advisers. There is no dearth of funds and each MP has been given 250 million rupees for development purposes. Then there is this very serious problem of missing persons. Chief Justice Chaudhary is in Quetta addressing this very issue as I write these lines. During a hearing of the case, he asked the additional chief secretary whether six MPs representing Quetta city had spent their funds honestly. As in rest of Pakistan, corruption is an issue here.

It was a time honoured tradition in this province to divide the top two political positions between the two major ethnic groups. For reasons best known to the rulers in Islamabad and Quetta, both the positions are now with the Baloch which is not ideal. Poor governance is one huge issue. The police is demoralised and bureaucrats below par and politicised. Vital development projects like the Gawader-Ratto Dero road have been inordinately delayed. This province, which can be the richest in Pakistan, is right now the poorest. The Pakistan Army has started a Cadet College at Sui which is a laudable project and needs to be replicated elsewhere.

Those who think there is a huge secessionist movement here are wrong. My impression is very different though, I must concede, the situation is far from normal. I would suggest that the president , prime minister and an important federal minister should visit Quetta every month. Development projects should be completed quickly. The issue of missing persons should be resolved with dispatch. The great Baloch people should be respected and not ignored. While in Quetta, I sincerely felt that many of its residents were better Pakistanis than me.

Hundreds stage rally in Kabul demanding end to deadly attacks on minority ethnic group in Balochistan province.

Last Modified: 04 May 2012 19:13

Protesters say there has been a surge in the killings of Hazara Shia in Balochistan province [AFP]

Hundreds of Hazara Shia have taken to the streets of the Afghan capital, Kabul, to protest against what they call thetargeted killings of members of their minority group in neighbouring Pakistan.

Protesters, numbering about 400, hoisted placards reading "Death to Terrorism" and "Shame, Shame Pakistan" on Friday as they called on Pakistan to protect members of the ethnic group after dozens of Shia were killed in the southwestern province of Balochistan in the past few months.

Speaking to the Reuters news agency, Fatima Jahfari, a female protester, asked when the killing of Hazara would stop.

"Until when will being a Hazara be a crime? Until when will we be told that because we are Hazara, we have to be martyred and until when will we be martyred because we are Shia?" she said.

Kazim Waheedi, organiser of the protest, said the killing of Hazaras in Pakistan was on the rise.

"In the past two months ,150 Hazaras have been killed, which shows a huge increase. And the reason of ourgathering is against this inhuman action by Pakistan," Waheedi, a medical doctor and activist, said.

The heavily guarded demonstration was blocked by Afghan police officers from reaching the Pakistani embassy in Kabul.

Friday's protests come weeks after other similar rallies in major world cities, including protests last month in Quetta, the capital of Balochistan province, where a tight-knit community of about 500,000 Hazara Shia live.

Violence against Shia in Afghanistan has been fairly rare since the ousting of the Taliban from power in 2001, but more common in Pakistan, where many Afghans have migrated during the decades of war in the Central Asian nation.

A Pakistani embassy official in Kabul dismissed criticism that Hazaras or other Shia were being neglected.

In a sign of growing worries about security, protesters on Friday divided into three groups to avoid possible attacks like a series of blasts in December, 2011, on Shia ceremonies in Kabul and two other areas that killed scores.

Words of caution; Please do not watch this video, if you are sensitive to blood scenes. The aim of this post is to highlight, how freely these terrorists kill people right in the Capital city of Balochistan...These vegetable merchants were supposed to travel with police security after consecutive attacks on Hazaras... Police's absence is a question mark on the role of Government in these killings?

Thursday, May 3, 2012

Yesterday, our own Ahmad Shuja was a guest on Al Jazeera’s The Stream, where he discussed the violent persecution of the Hazaras, an ethnic and religious –Shia– minority group in Pakistan.

The Hazara people, who originate from Afghanistan and historically formed an ethnic underclass in that country, have lived peacefully in neighboring Pakistan for centuries. But over the past decade, at least 500 of Hazara civilians have been killed and hundreds more have been injured in targeted ethno-sectarian attacks the city of Quetta. The violence has trapped one of South Asia’s most vulnerable populations between the conflict and uncertainty in Afghanistan and the growing anti-Shia movement in Pakistan, a country many Hazaras previously considered a safe haven.

Pakistani militant groups and extremist political parties have openly called for the expulsion of the Hazaras and other non-Sunni minorities from Pakistan, and have even set “deadlines” for Quetta’s half million Hazaras to leave or face extermination. Over the past year alone, dozens of Hazaras have been killed. Anti-Shia militants have targeted members of the group in suicide bombings, rocket attacks, assassination campaigns, and execution-style massacres of whole groups of laborers traveling on buses.

Since the violence began escalating, the Pakistani authorities have refused to take measures to protect the embattled minority and some officials have even suggested that the Hazaras are kicking up a fuss over nothing. After 47 Hazaras were killed in an attack on a bus last year, the Chief Minister of Baluchistan, where Quetta is located, told the local press that Quetta’s Hazaras were shedding “sorry tears” and joked that his response to the massacre would be to send a “truckload of tissues” to the victims’ families.

On The Stream, host Imran Garda spoke with Ahmad and two Hazara political leaders in Pakistan about the humanitarian toll the violence has taken on the Hazara community and what Pakistan’s Hazaras want from the government that has so far ignored their pleas for protection.

Wednesday, May 2, 2012

LONDON: Britain’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office drew a bleak picture of Pakistan’s human rights record on Monday and continued to bracket Pakistan amongst the countries of “serious concerns” along with Afghanistan, China, Iran, Russia and Saudi Arabia.

Foreign Secretary William Hague released the 2011 Human Rights and Democracy report on Monday, only a week before the arrival of Pakistani Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani for an official visit of the UK.

The contents of the report threaten to overshadow the visit will definitely cause a lot of unease in Pakistan’s diplomatic and political circles. The report heaped embarrassment on the civilian government of Pakistan People’s Party while declaring: “Concerns persist about the primacy of parliament within the Pakistani system, especially the extent of civilian government control over the military and intelligence services, and the threat of the government being undermined through extra-constitutional means.”

The report noted that human rights in Pakistan, a key ‘war on terror’ ally, including the rule of law; investigation of allegations of torture; freedom of religion or belief; the death penalty; women’s rights; children’s rights; extra-judicial killings; access to water, health care and education; and free and fair elections are major concerns and there has not been much improvement in these areas.

The report said Pakistan remained “near the bottom on a range of crucial indicators” and based its findings on the reporting by Human Rights Watch, Amnesty and other groups. Like previous year, the report failed to highlight the human rights violations in economically power countries such as India. It didn’t make any mention of the continuing rights violations of Kashmiris and other religious minorities and castes in India.

With federal and provincial elections due by May 2013, important questions remain about Pakistan’s ability to run free, fair and credible elections, it said. In some areas, the repeat said, there has been some improvement. “The engagement of the Supreme Court on human rights issues has meant that a number of high-profile cases of human rights violations have been addressed through the legal system.”

The report highlighted that in 2011 prime minister, foreign secretary, home secretary, international development secretary, FCO minister for South Asia and Baroness Warsi visited Pakistan to, the UK “to help Pakistan consolidate its progress towards a more stable and inclusive democracy” and engaged with senior figures in Pakistan on a range of human rights issues.

“Human rights will remain a priority for the UK’s engagement with Pakistan, and we will continue to intervene on human rights issues in Pakistan where we believe we can make a positive difference,” declared the report.

The report mentioned the development of Pakistan’s media environment, noting the proliferation of the number and range of media outlets since 2008.

“The increased media penetration into most aspects of Pakistani life has created challenges as well as opportunities, as both the journalistic community and politicians and officials build their understanding of effective freedom of expression and responsible reporting.”

But, the report highlighted the description of Pakistan “as one of the ten most deadly places to be a journalist.” It also noted the killing of journalist Shahzad Saleem last year in Islamabad said, “His death could be linked to articles he had written relating to a militant attack on a Pakistan naval base in Karachi” — pointing fingers at the intelligence agencies of Pakistan.

The report expressed criticism of the cable operators’ decision last year to stop broadcasting BBC World in Pakistan following a documentary series critical of Pakistan’s role in the fight against terrorism and the blocking of access to the online news site Baloch Hal by the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority.

The report said that during 2011, there were continued reports of allegations of extra-judicial killings and other ill treatment and torture by state agencies, particularly in Balochistan. “We continue to emphasise to the Pakistani authorities the importance of ensuring compliance with international human rights instruments, and the need to investigate thoroughly any accusations of extra-judicial killings or torture.”

The report added: “In our engagement with the government of Pakistan we regularly raise with senior military and political figures the vital need to maintain human rights and the rule of law in fighting terrorism.”

The report said that the murders of Salman Taseer and Shahbaz Bhatti — both assassinated in Islamabad in 2011 — by religious fanatics reflected that “Pakistan’s blasphemy laws are frequently abused by individuals as a means of carrying out personal vendettas through making unfounded accusations against other members of their communities. These accusations are most often levelled at Muslims by other Muslims, but are also regularly used to target religious minorities.”

“While swiftly condemned by all mainstream political parties in Pakistan, his killer was feted by many for his religious conviction, and benefited from several high-profile supporters during his subsequent trial. While the UK opposes the death sentence handed down in the case, we welcome the conviction,” it said.

On the case of Asia Bibi, a Christian woman sentenced to death on blasphemy charges, the report said that there remains “considerable concerns regarding the integrity of the case against her, the fairness of her trial, and her safety and treatment in prison.”

The report said that British representatives have regularly held meetings with “representatives from the Christian, Ahmadi and Hazara communities to hear of the persecution that they face, and has had regular engagement with the Ministry of Human Rights and civil society groups engaged in promoting religious tolerance and dialogue, many of whom have received death threats.”

The report described the situation faced by women in Pakistan as acute, “as is shown by Pakistan’s position of 133 out of 135 on the Global Gender Gap Index.” “Pakistan was labelled the third most dangerous place in the world for women by the Thomson Reuters Foundation in 2011, owing to the prevalence of domestic violence, so-called “honour” killings, forced marriages, rape and physical and sexual abuse. Half of Pakistan’s children are out of school and at least 60% of these are girls.”

The report highlighted the worsening human rights situation for religious minorities, especially against the Hindu and Hazara populations.

“In particular, we are concerned about targeted attacks on the Hazara population in Balochistan in the second half of 2011 and the Ahmadi community in Pakistan. We will continue to press the government of Pakistan to uphold the rights of all of its citizens, regardless of their faith, ethnicity or belief.”

A foreign office spokesperson told The News it was not true that Britain didn’t want to upset strong countries. “The countries included as a ‘country of concern’ are amongst those where we have the most serious wide-ranging human rights concerns. It is not an exhaustive list.”

Sectarian killing in Pakistan has now reached unprecedented levels. Violence and intimidation against Shiites and other religious minorities is increasingly commonplace, with mass-murders and target killings occurring on a near daily basis in all regions of the country. This state of growing lawlessness and criminal impunity threatens to destroy not only the minority communities themselves, but the very fabric of our nation as a whole.

It is under these increasingly desperate conditions that the Shia Hazara community of Quetta, Balochistan decided to convene a small group of international observers and legal experts to conduct a fact-finding mission to Quetta in late November of 2011. The purpose of the mission was to gather primary source documentation and evidence of the incidents and patterns of religiously justified violence, mass-murder, criminality, institutional negligence and ineptitude occurring in Quetta City and throughout the province of Balochistan. The result of that mission is the attached 76-page investigative report entitled, “The Shia Hazara of Pakistan; a Community Under Siege.” ... Continue Reading The Report....

A member of the minority Shi'ite Hazara Democratic Party (HDP) chants slogans during a demonstration against recent violence in Quetta. Picture: REUTERS/Naseer Ahmed

TNA Reporter and AFP

A protest demonstration was held in Hamburg City of Germany on April 28 to condemn the genocide of Hazara ethnic minority in Quetta city of Pakistan.

Protesters were holding banners and placards with slogans urging the international community to take action and stop a genocide-in-making. Placards read “Stop Hazara Genocide” in German language.

A stall was set for passersby to get information about the persecution of Hazaras in Quetta. Photos of the victims were on display to show how a merciless group of bloodthirsty sectarian terrorists of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi have besieged an ethnic minority of 600,000 people in Quetta, Pakistan.

Protesters allege that thousands of Hazaras have been permanently disabled by terrorist attacks. Over half a million Hazaras are terrorized on a daily basis for last 10 years.

They say no terrorist has ever been brought to justice by the Pakistani Government.

The group says the genocide of Hazaras in Quetta, Pakistan, has also been ignored by the United Nations, Human Rights Organizations, and the World.

For the past decade, Hazaras in Pakistan are singled out due to their Ethnic and Religious identity, and subjected to daily targeted killings and suicide bomb blasts by the terrorist networks. The Al-Qaida affiliated terrorist networks are financed by Saudi Arabia (and other wealthy Arabs in the Gulf) and enjoys full protection of the Pakistani ISI - the powerful Army Intelligence Agency, and "friends of terrorists" in the Pakistan Assembly (Senators, National Assembly Members and high officials)

Last week, Pakistani police shot dead two people allegedly involved in sectarian violence in the troubled southwestern province of Baluchistan, officials said.

Anti-terrorists officers in the province, a flashpoint for violence between Pakistan's majority Sunni Muslims and minority Shiites, gave chase after they tried to approach the suspects in a Toyota car which sped away.

The suspects then abandoned the vehicle and tried to escape into fields under the cover of fire, provincial police chief Qazi Abdul Wahid told AFP.

"An ensuing gunbattle police killed the pair," he said, adding that the encounter took place near Quetta's suburban Akhtarabad neighbourhood which lies close to the Shiite Hazara community.

Police recovered six pistols and one hand grenade from the suspects.

"We firmly believe they are target killers who had been on some mission. They belong to some extremist group involved in sectarian violence," Wahid added.

Around 35 people have been killed in Baluchistan over the past month in what police called targeted killings by militants from the rival Muslim sects.

The minority Shiites account for around a fifth of the country's 167 million population.

Baluchistan is also rife with Islamist militancy and a regional insurgency waged by separatists who rose up in 2004 demanding political autonomy and a greater share of profits from the region's wealth of natural

LONDON: Britain’s former Home Secretary Alan Johnson joined hundreds of protestors outside the High Commission of Pakistan here to condemn the wave of killings of ethnic Shia Hazaras in Pakistan’s restive Balochistan province.

The Labour MP criticised Pakistani government for failing to take effective steps against the sectarian killers who persecute Hazaras routinely and with impunity.

“I am here to stand in solidarity with Hazaras who face ethnic cleaning in Balochistan yet the government of Pakistan is showing no concern. In the last 10 years more than 700 Hazaras have been killed which is a scandal. The government doesn’t seem concerned and has shown no interest in catching the killers,” said the former Home Secretary, who called on Interior Minister Rehman Malik, his former counterpart, to take action and not only rely on issuing statements.

The protest organised by Hazara Progressive Alliance drew Hazaras living in the UK from various towns and cities, many of them direct victims of sectarian terrorism unleashed by banned sectarian groups Sipah-e-Sahaba and Lashkar-e-Jehangvi and other pro-Taleban/Al-Qaeda militants who target Hazaras due to their distinctive features.

Ali Raza Mogul told the protestors that Hazaras were forced to come outside Pakistan High Commission after failing to get any attention from the Pakistani government over the heart-wrenching killings. “There is a heavy presence of the law-enforcement agencies in Quetta city but it is matter of great concern that Hazaras get killed on daily basis. The government has failed to catch terrorists.”

Syed Inayat Shah said that terrorists had been given free hand by the state security agencies to act as it suited them. He said Lashkar-e-Jangvi had publicly claimed that it will turn Quetta city into a big graveyard of Hazara Shias but no action was taken against them. He criticised Rehman Malik and Balochistan’s Chief Minister Nawab Raisani only played to the cameras and were concerned about their own media publicity and were “involved in the politics of dead bodies”. He said Hazaras didn’t enjoy political and financial might in the country and that was the reasons why the establishment didnít want to upset the ruthless sectarian elements who were still seen as “security assets” in some circles.

The protestors presented a memorandum to Wajid Shamsul Hasan, Pakistan’s High Commission to the UK and stated how different meetings with the High Commission officials had failed to produce any results, forcing Hazaras to protest on the streets of London.

The memorandum said: “We have had no option but to gather here to cry out loudly so that our voices are heard by those responsible for the safety and security of innocent Hazaras of Quetta. If this doesn’t work and the government continues to give us the impression that our community members in Quetta are living in Jungle, we will have to seek recourse to further legal but more radical avenues for the redress of our grievances. This may please be noted for your record.” They demanded that the genocide of Hazaras be immediately stopped; the government work out a viable plan to initiate a comprehensive and rigorous targeted operation against the LeJ terrorists and all other religious militants in and around Quetta city immediately; and that the victims and the affected families must be financially supported in order that they can overcome financial constraints.